


Bets, Idiots and Ghosts

by Sapphiremoonlight1



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: AU, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27098416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphiremoonlight1/pseuds/Sapphiremoonlight1
Summary: Miyu wants to explore the mansion everyone talks about.Spectre wants the chance to scare everyone.Takeru is a jumping at his own shadow.Jin is running late.Aoi wonders how she agreed to this.Yusaku needs answers. Mostly though he needs some sleep.And Ryoken? He's done with all of them and the stupid house.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Bets, Idiots and Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: fantasy versus modern, where you can either pick to put the characters in a fantasy setting- or imagine them in the modern day.
> 
> Me: Urban fantasy? Idk the Ignis are not quite ghosts...poor Takeru...put down the poker.

“Why did I agree to come to the spooky old mansion with you again?” Takeru asks, trying to keep from fleeing at the eerie creaking noises of the old place. “This place gives me the heebie-jeebies!”

“You didn't have to come. It's not like I invited you anyway,” Ryoken replies rolling his eyes. Honestly if Takeru's going to act like he's about to jump out of his skin all night he should go home now. They haven't made it inside the house yet!

“Of course I had to come! Who else is going to keep an eye on everyone else,” Takeru says glancing back at the rest of their small group. Yusaku stares back at him unconcerned. Aoi and Miyu are a few steps behind him chatting about the history of the shabby place. Well, he wishes the last member of their little group hadn't come, but Spectre's right by Ryoken's side like a shadow. 

“Doesn't mean I have to like this,” he adds, toying with his flashlight. 

“Spectre's the only one here who's looking forward to exploring this sad excuse of a house,” Ryoken says. He for one is not looking forward to this but a bet's a bet even if it' involves his old, condemned home. The building was classified as condemned a few years ago after one of his father's experiments went wrong. Years of searching and several broken laws later, he still hasn't been able to find out what really happened. At this point it's been a couple of years since Ryoken's gave up trying. 

That didn't stop Aoi and Miyu from being interested in the history of the creepy dilapidated mansion down by Stardust Road. Miyu in particular bet each and every one of them that couldn't stay the night in the place. Except Takeru who wasn't around for that discussion but tagged along anyway. He doesn't know what they get if they win other than some absurd sense of pride. 

“How about we make this more interesting?” Spectre suggests turning to face everyone else. His flashlight angles in a way that makes his pronounce features even more sinister in appearance than usual. Which given his typical ghoulish smirk should've be possible. “We should split up and explore the grounds individually and meet back up here later.”

“What?! Don't you watch horror movies?! That's how the monster gets everyone!” Takeru yells, staring at the other teen like he's gone mad. He does go by Spectre so maybe he's working with the spirits?

“Hey guys!” Jin shouts running up the driveway. His flashlight bouncing around and blind each of them until he comes to a stop next to them. “Sorry I'm late. I had a hard time getting around Shoichi.”

“Since you're here how about you, tell them how much of a bad idea splitting up will be?” Takeru looks to Jin hoping for some support. Though he forgot the younger Kusanagi was invited too. Miyu managed to rope him into this mess and he's not going to ask how. 

“Why would we be splitting up? Isn't the idea to stay the night? Why not just hang around the living room or something?” Jin asks, staring at them confused. 

“Because it's more fun that way!” Spectre explains crossing his arms. “Unless you're all too scared too?”

“I don't care either way. Be here in the morning, or I'm calling the cops for trespassing,” Ryoken warns.

“How about we pair off instead?” Miyu offers attaching herself to Aoi and grinning. “Aoi and me, Yusaku and Takeru, and Spectre and Jin. Since Ryoken's being a wet blanket he can pick what he wants to do.”

Then she winks at Takeru, “Unless you're too chicken.” 

His reaction is exactly the one she's hoping for. He snatches Yusaku’s arm and stomps off towards the house. The other teen groans the whole way out of earshot. 

Spectre vanishes into the darkness followed by Jin in an attempt to keep up. Aoi stands there wondering what she's been dragged into before Miyu tugs her away leaving Ryoken standing alone in the driveway. Why did he let himself be talked into this again? He shakes his head and starts on his way inside trying not to think too much about how the mansion used looks lit and full of life. 

In the overgrown greenhouse with Spectre. 

Tonight might not be going exactly according to plan but at least he gets to enjoy this small haven of flora by himself. He and Miyu set up this whole bet hoping to get a chance to scare the others. It's Halloween season after all. Why not have some fun with it? Only they were supposed to split up individually and then him and Miyu meet up in the garden before they start to pick off their friends. 

Oh, while she probably wanted to scare Aoi on her own. He'll start on the plan on his own. Starting with the Jin. The teen's shouting is so loud it could wake the dead. It would be a good idea to let him shimmer like that some more. For now he would like to enjoy this strange little haven of stems and vines. Wild and yet clearly something has intervened with their growth or they wouldn't be climbing up in such neat strands. 

“Who has been taking care of you,” he wonders aloud, focusing on well kept tomato plants, cage and all. He examines its fuzzy stems until a rustling noise inside the greenhouse draws his attention. Instinctively he flicks the flashlight over expecting it to be nothing more than some wind causing some noise. As expected, there's nothing else there but an overflowing pot of morning glories. 

He jumps when his hand that should have been still brushing across the stem of a plant glides over something smoother. 

“Please do not touch the plants,” orders an unfamiliar voice. Assuming it's Miyu trying to trick him, Spectre laughs and turns his flashlight back to the plant by his hand. Instead of seeing reddish-pink hair peeking over the other side of the table. He sees something humanoid and oddly orange in tone standing next to the pot glaring back at him. 

Surprised Spectre lets out a minor shierk before taking a swipe at the creature thinking it's just a trick of the light and will disappear once he does. Only the thing stops his hand mid strike and continues to glare at him. “This is very rude. Why would you attack someone like that?” 

“What the hell?” He mutters, grabbing his arm back. “What are you?” 

“I am the person you were wondering about. You may call me Earth,” It asks walking closer to Spectre. It's shorter than the plants next to it and yet sounds like someone much larger. “Now why have you disturbed this greenhouse?”

“I asked you first! What are you?”Spectre retorts staring down the little creature. 

The two end up glaring at each for daring to be in their presence until there's a loud scream from the mansion. Spectre snorts before stalking out of the greenhouse. He wasn't getting anywhere with the hallucination anyway. Perhaps in the morning he will come back and check for any weird plants. One cannot have criminals growing funny things on his friends property now can they?

Not that far from the greenhouse by a fountain long dead with Aoi and Miyu. 

“You know I think you're up to something,” The brunette mutters pointing her flashlight at her distracted friend. 

“Oo, What?” Miyu replies, busy scanning over the well manicured garden space they were in. It is a bit odd seeing as the grass around the building isn't a few feet tall by now. However it could be Sol Technologies or the realtor maintaining it to sell once enough time passes for people to forget what happened. There was a small fire and a few scientists went missing. Noting that terrible but as they were Sol tech employees, not a lot of information was given out about what happened. That alone sparked a number of strange and sometimes outlandish ideas of what happened. 

Miyu being a whole rumour mill in herself loves propagating them all. Thinking about it she's wanted everyone to come so that she could have a hand uncovering something.

“You know what I'm talking about. Why did you get all of us to come here tonight?” Aoi asks again. This time she jabs a finger into Miyu's up shoulder causing her to jump. Her flashlight falling to the ground in the process.

“Eh!..Hey! That's not very nice,” She whines, bending down to grab it off the ground only to stop for a split second. Eye trailing over in the direction the light's pointing. Aoi thinking it's a trick to get her to see something scary lets out an annoyed huff before looking over too. 

It's not so much scary as it is tragic. What had likely been a beautiful marble statue of a mermaid is now a crumpling disfigured relic from a different time. Without thinking Aoi steps closer to it. Her memory of her and Akira's home before their parents passed away has always been a bit fuzzy. However, she does remember something similar being the backyard where she and Akira used to play. Of course nowadays her brother refuses to live anywhere that might bear the slightest resemblance to their childhood home. Maybe Ryoken thinks the same way about this place?

While she's brushing leaves off the statue lost in thought Miyu decides then is the right time to pop up next to her without warning and shout, “Boo!” 

“Eck!Miyu!” Aoi replies trying not to lose her balance. She might like the statue, but she doesn't want to find out what's lurking in the water beneath it! 

“What? It's payback for earlier,” Miyu replies, shifting her feet around but doing nothing to suppress the smug grin on her face. 

As Aoi's going to lecture her there's a hushed splash noise that causes them both to look down. Below them in the inky liquid starts to rip. Convinced it's probably a fish that managed to survive Aoi brings her hand up to her heart and exhales. Stupid fish. While she's trying to force her heart to stop trying to beat out of her chest, Miyu bends down and starts cooing. “Aww aren't you adorable!” 

“What ar-” She stops mid question and blinks a few times in an attempt to prove she's seeing things. There hovering over the water is a petite blue creature that is not a fish. And yeah It is kind of cute if you can get past the alien form.

“Aww thank you. You both look lovely too,” It replies. Freaked out Aoi goes to sprint off but trips over her feet, slamming into the pavement. Painful as the impact is, she fumbles up in time for Miyu to reach her. 

“Are you alright?” She asks, offering to help her up, but the question has a small echo. While Aoi's getting pulled up she looks over to the concerned creature. 

“Sorry if I scared you. I did mean too.”

“What are you?” 

The creature shrugs before introducing herself, “My name is Aqua. It's nice to meet you.”

Starting to calm down, Aoi kneels down beside the fountain followed shortly by Miyu. It's weird, but she doesn't think Aqua is going to cause them any harm. They both try to ask her questions for a while. Well, she answered most of them; she didn't answer the ones about the mansion or what she was. 

Then a loud scream rings out from the mansion. 

“That sounds like Takeru,” Miyu says glancing back at the building. 

“It does,” She agrees. 

“You two should go make sure your friend is alright. I'll be here if you want to come back,” Aqua promises, smiling in her own way. They exchange looks and decide to get up and check on their idiot friend. 

“We'll be back,” Miyu says, waving to Aqua then runs off. Aoi mutters to herself about having more than one ridiculous friend before following suit. 

Unpronounced to Aoi, Miyu turns around one more time and winks at Aqua. 

In the burnt out lab hidden to the side of the garden with a pissed off Jin. 

He got ditched! By Spectre of all people! He should have seen it coming. Of course the ghoulish teen would leave him to find his own way around the property. Spectre's probably off with Ryoken in the house or hiding somewhere hoping to take one of them by surprise. 

Guess he's lucky in that respect since he ducked into what he thought was a shed. The amount of glass scattered around the floor and the old machinery says Jin walked into something else. Shoichi is going to kill him if he comes home scraped up from the debris in here! He should walk out of here and head home before his brother finds out he's not home and comes searching for him. 

Curiosity gets the better of him though so he walked further into the unknown waving his flashlight around for any hints of what it might have been. His best guess knowing who used to live here is that it's the lab that caught fire years ago. 

Which hey another good reason why he shouldn't be here! Who knows how unsafe the structure is?!

Jin sighs before turning around and starting for the exit. A light flickering in an adjacent room draws his attention on his way out. Instead of turning tail and running out of the building like a sane person he goes to see what could be making the light flicker like that. Maybe there's a generator still powering a small portion of the lab. If Takeru was here, he'd be telling Jin not to go look at the source of the light because it's a ghost. Guy can take on thugs but nonexistent entities scare the hell out of him? 

It's calming, laughing to himself and wondering how much of a hard time Takeru might be having in the mansion despite having someone else around. Knowing Yusaku, he likely walked off on his own after a while. 

Soon enough he walks into the dim lit room. Turns out it was an old office and the overhead light is struggling to hold on. After taking a few steps into the room, the door behind him swings shut with a click. The sound sends chills racing down Jin's spine. That wasn't the wind. 

“Ah!” He spines around praying it's a change in air pressure that caused the door to close. Only he ends up face to face with an alien? Stand, more like floating there is a short smug looking toy. While he's wrapping his hand around the humanoid doll, toy whatever it is, It speaks. 

“Finally I was starting to think you were too afraid to come this far.”

“Ah!!!” 

“I might have assumed too much,” It continues before shaking Its head. 

Jin steps back and puts his arms around himself defensively, “What are you?” 

“I am Doctor Kogami's greatest creation!” It replies, throwing Its arms out wide. “For human purposes you may call me Lightning.” 

Jin thinking it might be a projection of some kind reaches out and snatches Lightning out of the arm. Since it turns out, he's solid, Jin stretches and pokes the creature. He's squishy. 

“Unhand me!” Lightning demands, squirm around in his grasp. 

“Nope! Not until you tell me what you are!” He replies keeping the creature trapped in his hands despite his attempted violent protests. He's too small to hurt Jin with his fists. 

“Never!” 

This argument continues with neither of them budging a figurative inch. In the literal sense Jin manages to secure Lighting momentarily in one hand. While he opened the door and found his way out of the lab with the creature still shouting demands. Wonder if he would be able to hide him from Shoichi if he brings Lightning home? 

“Get your filthy hands off of me!” 

“No-” Before he can continue their never ending debate a harsh scream echoes out of the mansion. In his surprise Jin's grip loosens and Lightning manages to escape. Torn between going back in for the creature and wanting to make sure his friends are alright he runs off to find out what happened. He can come back for Lightning later.

Down far below the rocky cliff the mansion stands on a dock hidden from view sits a disgruntled Ryoken. Miyu had gone on and on about closure, or something like that when she confronted him alone about coming back here. So far all he's gotten from being here is the urge to see the place torn down. Deep down he would never do that even when he finally gets legal possession of the property. 

Doesn't' mean he can't imagine what it would be like to walk down Stardust Road and not have to see the mansion looming overhead. He would probably hang out around Cafe Nagi if that was the case or if the man would park somewhere with fewer memories attached to it. 

For the moment his friends, because he somehow has some, are exploring his childhood home on a bet that Ryoken's not sure has a reward. Miyu was vague about the incentive but excelled at manipulating all of them into coming. How she convinced Yusaku he'll never know. She somehow got everyone to come on here on her dream trip to the creepy mansion on the outskirts of the city. 

With the horrible rumors surrounding the fire Ryoken never expected anyone but Spectre to ever talk to him. Most people who were aware of the Incident were superstitious and thought him bad luck to be around. Miyu, Aoi, Yusaku, Jin and much as hates to admit it Takeru doesn't seem to mind all that. 

Wonder what the old man would think of them? Did he imagine Ryoken growing up like this when he would stand beside him and watch the ocean ignite? Maybe one day he can relive that moment with everyone by his side. Maybe-

“Oh! Looky! I thought you would never come back here,” taunts a voice he hasn't heard in a long time. He grabs his flashlight and jumps up trying to find whoever or whatever spoke to him. It's been years since he heard the voice. At the time he thought it was mind trying to keep him calm while he got out of the mansion before the fire spread, but...

“Were you always so uppity?” It continues. Ryoken spins the light around searching for the source of the voice until he catches a hint of bright green hovering over him. An Ignis, one of the handfuls of creatures pictured in the paperwork his father left behind in the laboratory. The conclusion the researchers came to is they don't exist. 

“Sheesh took you long enough! I was starting to get bored waiting for you to find me,” Windy that's want the papers said the green was/is named. 

“You're not real,” Ryoken replies walking away from the creature. It's not real, it's just being here messing with head. 

“You're not real he says! What if I told you, you're not real?!” It mocks trailing after him. 

Ryoken doesn't pay it any attention though. Tonight is not the right time to deal with the possible existence of something his father had been researching. Especially with everyone else here...fuck what if the other Ignis are real? What if someone else sees one of them? How is he supposed to explain them?

Panicked, he races up the staircase along the cliff in hopes of finding and gathering everyone else up before they run into something they shouldn't. 

Then a scream echoes down the staircase. Sounds like one of them found something. 

Inside the well preserved but dusty mansion Yusaku stalks around the second floor ignoring the shadows playing in the corner of his eyes. He decided to go up upstairs after convincing Takeru to wait in the living room area while he kept looking around. 

Ryoken might try his hardest to keep his secrets underwraps but he's not very good at it. Especially when he leaves important papers out in the open in his apartment for anyone to find. Yusaku only agreed to come on this trip because he wanted to find out more about what happened. His parents at one point had been Doctor Kogami's assistants but had gone missing long before the fire. After finding a picture of them with Ryoken's father and a couple of others among the paperwork he developed a need to find out what happened here. If there was a connection other than the doctor. 

If only they agreed to come here during the day instead, though. Yusaku isn't worried about finding anything supernatural but he is concerned about Takeru's well being down there in the dark on his own. The other teen shouldn't have come if he's this superstitious but it's kind of sweet that he would try to overcome his fears in order to look after Yusaku. If only he'd apply that kind of logic to his school work. 

Lost he thought he walks right into something, more like someone. Under the harsh yellow light of his flash, the man's eyes seem to glow. They're not as bright or distracting as the purple shirt he's wearing. 

“Hey! Watch where you're going!” The man yells jumping back at sight of Yusaku's abrupt presence. He quickly masks it and jumps forward trying to frighten the teen. “Boo!”

Yusaku stands there and stares the weirdo down. 

The man frowns and stomps his foot, “That should have been scary!”

“Sleep diveried hallucinations don't scare me anymore,” he replies dully. Though they've never been this strange. He should listen to Takeru and try sleeping more. 

“What!? How dare you !?” the man replies, throwing his hands out in a huff. Then he gets an idea and quickly as he appears he disappears. 

Alone again Yusaku keeps walking, runs his flashlight over the wall he had been standing in front of and grimaces. There's a painting on the way of someone with multicolored hair and bright green eyes that remind him of his own. Finding the figure more eerie than the hallicantion he turns the flashlight away from the painting and right into a smug looking gold iris. 

Before he could turn to run from the monsters attached to the eye it warps Its tentacles around his waist entrapping him. This one isn't a sleep deprived hallucination but what the hell? 

“Argh! Let me go!” He demands, squirming around trying to get out of Its hold. 

“I'm scary now aren't I?” It replies, tugging him in closer. 

“No.” He responds. The creature huffs. 

“Then why did you try running away?” 

After a couple of minutes of glaring silence, “You're not going to answer that are you? Eh! Why did I get stuck with the stick in the mud?!”

“So this was planned?” Yusaku asks, cocking his eyebrow. 

“Eep!” It squeals, withdrawing Its tentacles back to cover Its mouth. Undeterred Yusaku continues to press about it. 

“Who's plan?” He frowns right after the words leave his mouth. The only person who wanted to be here was Miyu. She's also the only other person invested in what happened. 

While he's thinking about how to approach Miyu, the creature begins to shrink away back into the darkness around them. 

“Wait!” He calls without thinking. It stops and crosses its tentacles, all six as if they were arms. “Why should I?” 

“I...I-”

Takeru's ear bleeding scream cuts off the barrage of questions he has for the creature. He needs to go find that idiot and make sure he didn't fall through a floor board or trip over a railing. 

“Where are you going?” 

Yusaku ignores It and rushes back down the stairs. 

Forty-five or so minutes earlier with Takeru after being left on the first floor. 

Well being honest more like ten minutes as the teen rooted himself in place after Yusaku disappeared up the staircase. Takeru managed to preoccupy himself thinking of ways he might be able to turn this hellish adventure around. Mostly though he thought about how he could scare Ryoken and Miyu. The little sneak got them all to come to a creepy house so easily. For this he shall have his revenge! 

He gets bored after a while and dares to scan around the room with his flashlight. Might as well since he's got nothing better to do. Except being anywhere else. 

The only interesting feature in the living room is the fireplace off to the side. Everything else looks like damaged modern furniture. Rich people are weird. 

In movies they usually try to destroy things in the fireplace! There might be the remains of something useful buried in those ashes. So he swipes a disguared poker off the floor and starts poking around. 

“Ouch!” 

“Ehh! Yusaku? Is that you?” Takeru calls searching around the room, poker in hand waving around wildly for any sign of the other teen. He's the only one in the room. 

“Put that thing down before you poke your eye out!” This time he knows that voice doesn't belong to anyone he came here with and screams as loud as his lungs will let him. 

“Aaahh!!!”

“Stop screaming!-Ah!” This time it actually is Yusaku next to him or was. He jumps away trying to avoid getting stabbed. Terrified Takeru glares at the other teen. “How do I know you're not a ghost?” 

“Put the damn poker down and then we can talk about your insanity!” He replies backing away. 

“Ghost!” Takeru takes a swing at Yusaku anyway. Fortunately or unfortunately the strike doesn't land because something stopped it last second. What stops it is a short red, furious creature. The little thing glares at him. 

Before It or Yusaku could respond to the situation Takeru books it out of the building, dropping the poker in the process. His grandfather was right, ghosts are real! He's not sticking around to find out what else is true about them. 

Of course it's his luck that he runs right into Ryoken knocking them both over. 

“Watch it!” 

“You watch it! I'm out of here!” Takeru shouts, continuing to flee down the winding road back to his place. 

Aoi, Miyu, Spectre and Jin all make it back to the front of the mansion in time to watch him disappear into the night. Yusaku comes along a minute later murmuring to himself. 

“Are you satisfied? We are all going home now!” Ryoken barks looking to Miyu than at Aoi and her scraped up knees. “What happened to you?” 

“She did,” Aoi lies, gesturing to the girl with her thumb. "She snuck up on me, and I fell. I didn't think it was that bad...” 

“And Takeru?” He asks, turning to Yusaku this time.

“Tried to hit me with a rusted poker because he thought I was a ghost,” he replies matter of factly. 

Ryoken resists the urge to slap his forehead. He knew this was a bad idea. He turns to the remaining two in the group. “Anything you want to add?”

“The greenhouse might have some pests living inside it but otherwise I've got nothing to report,” Spectre answers shrugging. 

“Yeah, I've got nothing,” Jin replies looking away. 

“You all ran into something didn't you?” Ryoken sighs watching each of their reactions. Aoi stares off to the side, Spectre gives another impassive shrug, Jin stares off too only the grin on his face gives him away, Miyu just smiles, and Yusaku is as unreadable as ever. In conclusion they ran into the Ignis too and don't want to admit it. 

“Alright then let's go,” Ryoken says starting on his way down the hill. He knows all of them are going to sneak back here tomorrow night and he needs a good night rest before he can deal with this. That just leaves his other suspicion. 

“You had something else in mind besides the stupid bet when you suggested this didn't you,” He accuses glaring at Miyu when she catches up. 

“I have no idea what you're talking about. I just wanted to explore the source of all the weird stories floating around the school,” She casually answers playing with her hair. There's a lopsided smile on her face despite her reply.

**Author's Note:**

> Why can't I just write a drabble xD Also that title. 
> 
> I imagine Windy stalked Ryoken home and played poltergeist to get back at him for that comment.


End file.
